Monday, June 21, 2010

Monkey Like Shiny is moving in and is here to stay !!
Well, the word is and the reason no post have been made in a long time is, I have moved the shop to the San Fran Bay area because I got a new job and it just ended up being my dream job.

I get paid to build crazy machines and robots!!!!!!

My new gig is at a robotic company not far from Oakland, its so rad working with some of the most talented fabricators I have met on some of the toughest and most complex fabrication jobs I have worked on, from medical to food to cemicals we build crazy machines to do everything, plus I get every other friday off so expect some really rad stuff coming your way on the free days and weekends, its been a goal to move to the San Fran bay for years. Now its TIME, so WATCH OUT !!

Sounds like the home of the HQ of Monkey Likes Shiny will be Berkeley, CA.

Just as I move in, some people that I have looked up to such as ElCamino Fab's – Jason Grove moved out of the area, bummer, I will have to step it up and fill some big shoes. The bay area is perfect for the downhill speed bike, everyday I find a bigger hill, I keep getting more excited to finish it.........

Sunday, June 6, 2010

These are some little chopper motorcycles we built for people using Honda Elite motors. They were so much fun cause I wasn't old enough to drive but I could ride a scooter, by using the Honda Elite it had a title for a scooter.

The one my brother is riding was a customers bike, the one I am on was personal ride with the money tank and little hayes disc on the front. It was more BMX bike then anything.

Well, This is where it started

Suzuki 1979 GS550

My brother and I first built a single sided swing arm and put the 15 x 11.5 inch Mickey Thompson Drag slick on the back, then we had to build some pipes and an intake.

This was a sketch of a concept of the pipes which we never did, it ended up being myself with a 30 pack of Hamms beer on a Friday night at the shop. I never figured out why the pipes were so odd looking once they were done, some how they bolted back up if you took them off. The pipes ended up being 4 in to 2 with flame shooters.

We cut the tank for the down draft carbs to sit in the pocket, its kind of a cool picture with the drawings my brother did.

This bike almost killed me so many times, even while we were filming the Discovery Channel Show Biker Build Off, the tire only had like 10 psi so it would roll over when your turned, if you put any more pressure in it, it became to square to lean the bike around a turn.

So with so little pressure in the tire, when she would start hopping it was like riding a out of control beach ball at 75+ mph!